DIARRHEA. 109 
the patient did not do well on milk and lime-water, or this food seemed dis- 
tasteful to him, flour gruel should be tried. 
In making this the flour should be first baked in a shallow pan until browned, 
then slowly stirred into the milk and boiled for several minutes. It is a very 
simple yet quite effectual remedy, and he is wise who gives it the preference, at 
least for a time, over all others when diarrhoea of mild type occurs in delicate 
breeds, as toy-terriers. 
Where the signs seem to indicate that a bone is lodged in the bowel, an injec- 
tion of sweet oil should be administered as advised in “Intestinal Obstruction.” 
When diarrhcea is accompanied by vomiting it is customary to call it “ bilious,” 
under the impression evidently that the cause is in the liver. This may be true 
in a small proportion of cases, but certainly not invariably, and the term “ bilious 
diarrhcea ” is of doubtful propriety, indiscriminately used as it is, and more espe- 
cially since calomel is the remedy so generally sought. 
Vomiting and diarrhoea may occur together without the liver being involved 
any more than in a mere irritative diarrhoea. Nor is it safe to draw conclu- 
sions from disturbances of man and apply them to dogs, for as a matter of fact, 
unlike the former, dogs are but rarely bilious. Furthermore, disturbances of 
the liver are far less liable to excite vomiting in them than in man. Again, the 
greenish, yellowish bile with the mucus and other matters raised in cases termed 
bilious, is not the cause, but, instead, it is the consequence of the vomiting, the 
same being sucked into the stomach from the intestine during the expulsive 
efforts. Finally, this may occur and bile be vomited without any disturbance of 
the liver whatsoever. 
Perhaps no better opportunity for dispelling some prevalent delusions on this 
subject will be afforded, hence the discussion is carried a little further. 
There are three conditions to which the term bilious might, possibly, without 
impropriety be applied. One is indolence, as it were, on the part of the liver, in 
consequence of which the noxious materials which it ought to remove are left 
in the blood, and find their way out through other secretions. Another is 
obstruction in the gall-duct, which prevents the accumulated bile from taking 
its natural course into the bowels; but instead it is reabsorbed into the blood, 
from which it escapes by the kidneys, skin, secretions of the glands of the 
mouth, etc. This condition existing, the intestinal discharges are no longer 
natural in appearance, but clayey, slate-colored, or nearly a dull white; while the 
urine is very dark, for the reason that it is loaded with the coloring matter of 
the bile. But such intestinal discharges are rarely watery; on the contrary, they 
are generally either of natural consistency or more solid and drier than usual. 
A third state which might be termed bilious is an unhealthy condition of the 
bile secreted; and in this, if the discharges are sufficiently acrid and irritating, 
there would likely be diarrhcea, yet it is doubtful if that peculiar form often 
occurs in dogs. 
